Reaching for the Bible is more often than not frowned upon in contemporary, secular Australia. But Bill Shorten did it with gusto in a major speech that may well help define his leadership. At the same time Tony Abbott has embarked on a mission that may well end his.

Both men could be likened to Daniel in the biblical story, entering the lions’ den. He emerged unscathed after saying his prayers while his enemies perished when they were meted the same punishment. The prime minister may need to say his prayers after setting his government on a course to reform the basic arrangements of the federation, which in no small part would mean a radical shake-up of the way Australians are governed and taxed. The opposition leader, on the other hand, has survived telling the annual conference of the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) that he is a Christian and his faith values lead him to respect gays and to want an end to discrimination against their relationships.

This aspect of the opposition leader’s speech grabbed the headlines but was not all of it. He was not making a sensationalist play for attention. It was a carefully thought-through statement of his principles and a manifesto for his leadership. It answered the core question many, particularly his political opponents, throw at him: What does he stand for?

Shorten was not making a sensationalist play for attention. It was a carefully thought-through statement of his principles and a manifesto for his leadership.

Shorten came in for severe criticism from many supporters of marriage equality for even daring to speak to the ACL. The more rabid bombarded the Facebook page of the Hyatt Hotel in Canberra, where the conference was held. The hotel was attacked for being a venue for “bigots”, “hypocrites”, “homophobes” and worse. Shorten was shocked the lobby group attracted such hatred. But he was determined to press on. His speech was not directed at the ACL as such but more broadly at militant conservatives who see Labor pursuing an agenda that undermines the nation’s Judeo-Christian heritage as they narrowly perceive it.

His intent was clear from the start: “I hope we can share our hopes and ideals robustly, respecting each other’s dignity and conscience.” At the suggestion of his parish priest, he began his spiel quoting Matthew’s Gospel and the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” And at the risk of sounding like a bible basher, he went on: “Judge not, Jesus tells us. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged. And above all he tells us to love our neighbour as we love ourselves. In everything, do unto others what you would have them do unto you.” This is the golden rule he says he’s spent his working life trying to live up to.

But far from claiming all wisdom and knowledge is Christian, the Labor leader showed a sensitivity to the contemporary secular ethos the ACL and its supporters in the past have failed to acknowledge: “No faith has a monopoly on compassion. No religion ‘owns’ tolerance or charity or love ... And Australians rightly expect our national leaders to respect the constitutional separation of church and state ...

“And no faith, no religion, no set of beliefs should ever be used as an instrument of division or exclusion ... Condemning anyone, discriminating against anyone, vilifying anyone is a violation of the values we all share.”

In clear and unequivocal language he shocked some in his audience and outraged others with this searing synthesis: “How can compassion, charity, love recognition and endorsement continue to be restricted to heterosexual Australia and the nuclear family? I believe in God and I believe in marriage equality under the civil law of the Commonwealth of Australia.”

ACL managing director Lyle Shelton resented Shorten’s accusation that his organisation used the Bible to attack gay marriage or blended families. He rejects the suggestion that the lobby group is in fact the equivalent of the Christian right in Australia.

This sensitivity is curious as he mounts the argument against gay marriage and parenthood in the same terms as the leading Liberal conservative, senator Cory Bernardi: “Children have a right to know and be raised by their biological parents.”

In January, the ACL blog cited him approvingly: “Bernardi marshals the well-known (but frequently ignored) social science evidence which says children do best when raised by their biological mother and father.”

“The ACL is championing the rights of the vulnerable child over the rights of the adult gay couple,” Shelton says.

But there is evidence public opinion is increasingly on Shorten’s side. The Essential poll has found 60 per cent support for gay marriage with only 28 per cent against it. Overwhelmingly Labor and Greens voters are for it, Liberal voters are more or less evenly split, while a clear majority of “Others” back the proposition.

While Shorten emerged from the ACL lions’ den not only relatively unscathed but with his reputation enhanced, at least among marriage-equality advocates, Tony Abbott is still to be tested. Indeed, he appears to have put his head in a lion’s jaws like a circus daredevil. The prime minister would have no illusions about the potency of a boots-and-all tax scare campaign that he has gifted to the opposition.

His Sir Henry Parkes Oration, delivered in Tenterfield, is about more than the GST, it is also about shrinking the federal government dramatically. There is one dynamite paragraph that his office did not release in its pre-delivery briefings to journalists: “The Commonwealth would be ready to work with states on a range of tax reforms that could permanently improve the states’ tax base – including changes to the indirect tax base, with compensating reductions in income tax.”

The biggest indirect tax is, of course, the $55 billion goods and service tax. Abbott’s offer to consider raising it has to be seen alongside his pre-election agenda “that our federation reform white paper was meant to make each level of government more sovereign in its own sphere”. This can only mean the Commonwealth retreating from health, education, roads, police, housing and planning, and restoring full responsibility to the states where the constitution allocates them. It would be a winding back of the post-World War II evolution to a stronger national approach.

In his 2009 book Battlelines, Abbott didn’t think the states were up to it, and the early signs are they are not willing to wear the blame for hiking the GST. Victoria’s Liberal premier, Denis Napthine, facing an election this month, knows it’s electoral poison and would not have a bar of it. Queensland’s Liberal National Party premier, Campbell Newman, was less emphatic, but he, too, said he was not calling for a tax hike. South Australian Labor premier Jay Weatherill rejected it as unfair, and his view was shared by federal Labor: “It is by its nature regressive. It will place the burden more on those who can least afford it.”

Having opened the door to the possibility of a major shift, the prime minister retreated somewhat in parliament under sustained attack for breaking his promises on tax.

“Let me make it absolutely crystal clear – no one in this parliament at this time is proposing change to the GST.” Hardly a ringing endorsement of his own clarion call for all sides to embrace the reforming zeal of old.

“What I am proposing is that we have a mature and rational debate about fixing our federation … I am proposing that just for once everyone in this parliament put the long-term national interest ahead of the short-term politicking.”

It’s a call that rings hollow in the hands of this prime minister who, when he attacks “rancid partisanship”, reminds his political opponents of his own record as a hardball political pugilist of 20 years standing. Clive Palmer actually laughed when asked on Radio National if Abbott could lead the sort of debate he’s calling for.

There was more than a hint of maturity from the Committee for Economic Development of Australia. Its chief executive, Professor Stephen Martin, a former Labor politician, is backing the need for serious tax reform within the federation. He released a report showing the current revenue-sharing arrangements are failing to deliver for the states. But, unlike the prime minister, he told the ABC there would have to be winners and losers. It would take a lot of courage for a political leader to make that part of a sales pitch. Most think of “courage” in the same way as it was used in the hit TV show Yes, Prime Minister. There, it meant political suicide.

Abbott prefers: “Tax reform means lower, simpler and fairer taxes with more incentives for all Australians to follow their dreams.”

He is also looking for allies to take up the cause. In a steal from the John Howard playbook he urged the Business Council to lead the charge as it did in the lead-up to the GST. But it failed to persuade a majority of voters then. Labor won the popular vote in 1998 but Howard won the election with more seats. Just a reminder of the danger, and no wonder the call for the protection of bipartisanship.

Shorten, on the other hand, is using the Abbott template to run a great big tax scare. He parts company with the prime minister on cosying up to hardline Christian conservatives by applying freedom of conscience and an end to discrimination.

This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on
Nov 1, 2014 as "Saint Bill and the Tenterfield haggler".
Subscribe here.

Paul Bongiorno
is a columnist for The Saturday Paper and a regular commentator on ABC Radio National Breakfast.

Karen Middleton
An audit report covering Scott Morrison’s role in the New Zealand tourism office raises serious concerns over transparency and due process.The NZ auditor’s criticisms of Morrison are similar to some of those the Australian National Audit Office would make nine years later in its own report examining the management of Tourism Australia.

Charis Palmer
As the government pushes to legislate for control of energy prices, retailers blame poor policy for rising bills. Meanwhile, experts say, the market continues to be gamed by energy generators.

Ella Donald Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn developed a taste for the macabre at an early age, but she’s keen to dispel the myth that she is who she writes. She talks about her depictions of deeply disturbed and disturbing women and the release of her latest film project, Widows. “There’s a reason we’re fascinated with domestic-based murders. It allows us to talk about marriage and family and what goes on behind closed doors. It gives us a strange vocabulary and permission to talk about those things we wouldn’t otherwise.”

Dylan Voller
If we didn’t riot, if we didn’t bring attention to the situation that way, all of these abuses would still be hidden out of sight. No one would know what goes on in Don Dale. Ultimately, we need all youth detention centres shut down and resources and power given to Aboriginal community leaders to develop alternative programs and facilities based on country, to help children who are caught up in violence and trauma to heal.

Paul Bongiorno
The question dogging Scott Morrison as he rubs shoulders with world leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Port Moresby this weekend is how long he will remain a member of this exclusive club. By his own admission, the chances are slim. The accidental prime minister – catapulted into the job when a majority of the Liberal Party room 12 weeks ago preferred him over Peter Dutton – is failing miserably.

If you take out all the pages from The Sydney Morning Herald reporting on allegations of inappropriate touching there wouldn’t be enough newsprint to wrap a flounder. The latest revelation is that while the ABC board was at Billy Kwong’s, tucking into the saltbush cakes and crispy skin duck with Davidson’s plums, the then managing director’s back allegedly got rubbed, ickily. Litigation regarding this sort of thing is rampant.

The euphemism in the documents calls the grants “departmental approaches”. Everywhere else in Indigenous affairs, the money has to be begged; here, it is given freely. Possibly because here it can be used to fight Indigenous interests. By Nigel Scullion’s own admission, the money was for “legal fees, effectively … to put forward a case of detriment to the land commissioner”. That is, to object to native title claims.

Celina Ribeiro
The NSW government’s plan to make it easier to adopt children in out-of-home care has been criticised for not allowing sufficient time for parents to restore their families and for potentially creating a new Stolen Generation.

Hamish McDonald
Scott Morrison and Xi Jinping take on international diplomacy in the Pacific. Beijing boosting regional security, not military. South-west Pacific in political turmoil. ‘Soft power’ review under way as case made for Radio Australia’s return.

Sophie Quick
At the KidZania labour-themed fun park in Singapore, children earn pretend money working pretend jobs as insurance agents or pharmacists, while their parents stand in depressingly familiar queues.

Richard Cooke
As she competes in the ICC Women’s World Twenty20, Australian cricketer Sophie Molineux talks about the advantages of being a left-handed all-rounder and why she no longer bowls a wrong ’un.

Karen Middleton
An audit report covering Scott Morrison’s role in the New Zealand tourism office raises serious concerns over transparency and due process.The NZ auditor’s criticisms of Morrison are similar to some of those the Australian National Audit Office would make nine years later in its own report examining the management of Tourism Australia.

Charis Palmer
As the government pushes to legislate for control of energy prices, retailers blame poor policy for rising bills. Meanwhile, experts say, the market continues to be gamed by energy generators.

Ella Donald Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn developed a taste for the macabre at an early age, but she’s keen to dispel the myth that she is who she writes. She talks about her depictions of deeply disturbed and disturbing women and the release of her latest film project, Widows. “There’s a reason we’re fascinated with domestic-based murders. It allows us to talk about marriage and family and what goes on behind closed doors. It gives us a strange vocabulary and permission to talk about those things we wouldn’t otherwise.”

Dylan Voller
If we didn’t riot, if we didn’t bring attention to the situation that way, all of these abuses would still be hidden out of sight. No one would know what goes on in Don Dale. Ultimately, we need all youth detention centres shut down and resources and power given to Aboriginal community leaders to develop alternative programs and facilities based on country, to help children who are caught up in violence and trauma to heal.

Paul Bongiorno
The question dogging Scott Morrison as he rubs shoulders with world leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Port Moresby this weekend is how long he will remain a member of this exclusive club. By his own admission, the chances are slim. The accidental prime minister – catapulted into the job when a majority of the Liberal Party room 12 weeks ago preferred him over Peter Dutton – is failing miserably.

If you take out all the pages from The Sydney Morning Herald reporting on allegations of inappropriate touching there wouldn’t be enough newsprint to wrap a flounder. The latest revelation is that while the ABC board was at Billy Kwong’s, tucking into the saltbush cakes and crispy skin duck with Davidson’s plums, the then managing director’s back allegedly got rubbed, ickily. Litigation regarding this sort of thing is rampant.

The euphemism in the documents calls the grants “departmental approaches”. Everywhere else in Indigenous affairs, the money has to be begged; here, it is given freely. Possibly because here it can be used to fight Indigenous interests. By Nigel Scullion’s own admission, the money was for “legal fees, effectively … to put forward a case of detriment to the land commissioner”. That is, to object to native title claims.

Celina Ribeiro
The NSW government’s plan to make it easier to adopt children in out-of-home care has been criticised for not allowing sufficient time for parents to restore their families and for potentially creating a new Stolen Generation.

Hamish McDonald
Scott Morrison and Xi Jinping take on international diplomacy in the Pacific. Beijing boosting regional security, not military. South-west Pacific in political turmoil. ‘Soft power’ review under way as case made for Radio Australia’s return.

Sophie Quick
At the KidZania labour-themed fun park in Singapore, children earn pretend money working pretend jobs as insurance agents or pharmacists, while their parents stand in depressingly familiar queues.

Richard Cooke
As she competes in the ICC Women’s World Twenty20, Australian cricketer Sophie Molineux talks about the advantages of being a left-handed all-rounder and why she no longer bowls a wrong ’un.